Psalm 119:25 — My soul cleaves to the dust; Revive me according to Your word.
We are continuing to reflect on the sanctifying influences of the Word of God and have seen already that it feeds our souls and causes them to grow in grace.
This week and next, we are looking at a remarkable passage from the Psalms, in which the psalmist records for us his sufferings and his inner struggles during a time of great affliction. He has been brought to the point where it seems to him that his soul is lying in the dust of death. How did he get here? It seems it was because the Word of God had helped him to see what he was really like. It had exposed his sin and corruption as he had perhaps never seen it before. He had wanted to do good, but evil was right there with him, overwhelming him, and so he reached the point where he despaired of spiritual life and he cried out to God that his soul is lying in the dust of death.
Have you ever known this intense struggle with sin? Have you ever looked within your soul and wondered whether your profession of faith in Christ can possibly be real, given what you found there? If so, be comforted that you are not alone. Many, if not all, true children of God go through such struggles at one time or another, and to varying degrees. What is important for us this week is to see what the psalmist did, where it was that he looked for help even as he contemplated this deadness of soul, even as his spiritual senses reeled with an understanding of his sinfulness that caused him to despair of spiritual life. "Revive me according to Your word," he says. "Quicken me", another translation puts it - "Make me to live".
Why would he look to God's Word for help? Remember that it was by the Living Word of God that all things were called into being out of nothing. It was by the spoken word of Jesus that Lazarus was called out of the tomb and raised to life. It is by the written Word of God, applied to our souls by the animating power of the Holy Spirit, that we can be made to live again even when we sense the death of sin running rampant within our souls. One reason this is true is because the Word of God contains all His great and precious promises of good towards His children, of deliverance from the guilt and the power of sin, of the eternal inheritance that God has prepared for His own. The Holy Spirit, the Comforter, can use these promises to enliven the soul that is cast down to the dust, and to set our hearts at rest in His presence! As Peter once said to Jesus, "Where else shall we go, Lord? You have the words of life."
Friends, are you crushed to the point of despair by your sins? Are you beginning to think that you have never been saved at all? What should you do? Come to the Word of God! Read it, hear it preached. Perhaps you are right, and you never have been truly saved - what should you do? Come to the Word of God, because only here is there Good News of a Savior from sin! Perhaps you are a believer, but your life, like a candle, has flickered so low that there is only a smoldering wick remaining. What should you do? Come to the Word of God! Here is where you will find your Savior again - the One Who will never snuff out the smoldering flax or break the bruised reed. Here is ointment for your wounds, here is healing for your infirmities, here is life and power!
Surely this is a good reason to read God's Word and to hear it preached!
